According to Bloomberg, Apple has reached an agreement with Rivos, an SoC company that Apple sued in 2022 for stealing trade secrets. Rivos will conduct a forensic examination of its systems to remove any confidential information related to Apple. Rieves hired more than 40 employees from Apple, including several former senior engineers, leading Apple to file a lawsuit in May 2022.
Apple accuses Rivos of poaching employees and using them to steal chip trade secrets. Rivos is designing SoCs that compete with Apple's A-series and M-series chips.
According to Apple, at least two engineers employed by Rivos took away "gigabytes of sensitive SoC specifications and design files" during their final days at Apple. The employees used USB drives and AirDrop to transfer sensitive Apple data to their personal devices and allegedly stole presentations for unreleased SoC products.
Apple requested an injunction against employees who joined Rivos to prevent them from continuing to leak sensitive data, and demanded compensation for losses caused by the misappropriation of trade secrets and Rivos' "unjust enrichment" at the expense of Apple. Apple wants Rivos to pay "reasonable royalties" on future products and is demanding a jury trial.
Rivos and Apple aim to finalize a settlement by March 15 and are working on remediation.